China bound

Sacramento Bee's CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO: "Gov. Jerry Brown jabbed repeatedly at President Donald Trump’s skepticism of climate change on Thursday, contending that China has stepped into the role of the world’s “great hope."

"Brown, at a conference on carbon reduction, also announced he would be traveling to China in June to promote environmental protection."

“It’s very paradoxical that we have a president who says two things: No. 1, climate change is a hoax. That’s his first value proposition,” Brown said. “His second is that it was created by China. And the truth is that China is on a path to do a hell of a lot more than the Trump administration in dealing with climate change. So, if there’s any hoax, it’s in the White House, not in Beijing."

Sacramento Bee's ELLEN GARRISON: "Citrus Heights Councilman Melvin Turner and Rancho Cordova Councilman Dan Skoglund died Thursday morning in a sudden loss to the cities they served for years, including terms as mayor."

"Turner, 67, died early Thursday after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer, Citrus Heights officials said. Skoglund, 66, died unexpectedly Thursday morning due to complications from a recent surgery, according to the city of Rancho Cordova."

LA Times' BARBARA DEMICK: "The mystery of how a prominent African American judge came to be found floating dead in the Hudson River has deepened as her family and widowed husband disputed suggestions by the New York Police Department that she had committed suicide."

"What is known is that Sheila Abdus-Salaam, 65, a judge on the state’s highest court, went for a walk alone on the evening of April 11, locking the door to her Harlem brownstone, leaving her phone and wallet at home. Surveillance cameras showed her walking alone near the river shortly after midnight, according to the New York Police Department. The next afternoon, her body, fully clothed in sweat pants and sneakers, was found at the edge of the river in an area popular with joggers and bicycle riders."

"In the initial days, police said that the death appeared to be a suicide because there were no obvious signs of trauma to her body. Reports circulated that her family had a history of suicide — that her 92-year-old mother had taken her life during the Easter holiday in 2012 and her brother two years later. But her family now disputes those stories, saying in a statement that Abdus-Salaam’s mother died naturally of old age and her brother of terminal lung cancer."

Sacramento Bee's TARYN LUNA: "The only Republican lawmaker to vote for the controversial $52 billion transportation deal says he received hundreds of angry calls on his personal cellphone and at home, some threatening, the day after the measure passed in the California Legislature."

"Cannella said his cellphone and home address were shared publicly the day after the vote. He said he did not know who shared the information and that he changed his number the same day. Cannella did not detail the nature of the threats. He said the California Highway Patrol is making extra patrols of his neighborhood."

LA Times' CHRIS BARTON: "Bill O’Reilly’s more than 20-year reign at Fox News was, essentially, a series of confrontations."

"Pinheads, culture warriors, political correctness and the “media elite” were the favored targets for a host who structured his show, “The O’Reilly Factor,” as a nightly account of the larger fight he and, presumably, his audience were waging against Where This Country Is Headed (i.e. away from what he called traditional values)."

"O’Reilly was a pugnacious and assured onscreen presence, and he helped shift the TV news landscape toward the ratings potential of opinion and outrage entertainment. “The O’Reilly Factor,” which aired daily at 8 p.m. EST and again at 11 p.m., spoke primarily in absolutes and paved the way for Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Keith Olbermann and, to an extent, Stephen Colbert, who based his pundit persona on O’Reilly for Comedy Central’s Emmy-winning “Colbert Report."

The Chronicle's MIZGON ZAHIR DARBY: "The United States dropped “the mother of all bombs” on caves in Afghanistan on April 13 — just days ahead of the Moscow-backed peace talks with Afghanistan. While it’s reported that the bombing resulted in few civilian casualties in the mountainous Achin District, the Trump administration’s actions are traumatizing the Afghan American community in the Bay Area."

"Zakia has been in the United States legally for more than 30 years. But, because she is a refugee, she wonders if she will be sent back to Afghanistan."

"I didn’t like Afghanistan when it was safe for women like me to wear mini-skirts and go out openly, let alone now,” she said. “Do you think they will send me back there? I am a citizen of the United States now. I came here as a refugee because I had to — not because I wanted a better life, but because I had to — they would have killed my daughter and me if we stayed in Afghanistan."

The Chronicle's FILIPA IOANNOU/MICHAEL BODLEY/KEVIN FAGAN: "By the thousands they came, from all over the Bay Area and across California, in billowing clouds of sweet-smelling smoke and scarfing enough munchies to fulfill even the hungriest stoner’s dreams."

"Thursday was the annual friendly invasion of Golden Gate Park by marijuana fans to mark their celebration of April 20, and despite some official jitters over having so many weed-fogged people in one place at the same time, when the last bong hits flickered out, the day had lived up to its laid-back goals of fun and sun."

"The date is known simply as 4/20 in the pot world, and Thursday’s gathering was San Francisco’s first fully permitted cannabis celebration in the park. Which meant that instead of the usual unsupervised free-for-all of years past, this time there were fences and rules and officials looking on. But none of that wound up harshing much of the mellow."

AP's JOCELYN GECKER: "University of California, Berkeley officials said Thursday they have a "grave concern" of violence on campus if Ann Coulter follows through on her vow to speak next week at the university."

"Chancellor Nicholas B. Dirks instead proposed an alternate May 2 date for the conservative author, reversing a decision from a day earlier when officials canceled the event."

"Coulter took to Twitter to reject the offer, saying she will appear next Thursday as originally planned."